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Thursday, June 22, 2006

Poemeleon is a wonderful find -- if only I had better glasses. This new zine is a beautiful read, except for the teeny-tiny font size, which gives me a headache after about three poems. Editor Cati Porter puts her mission for poemeleon this way:

"poemeleon seeks to make visible the invisible. By placing disparate poems alongside one another I aim to highlight not just their contrasts, but their similarities. To quote Forrest Gander: "Like species, poems are not invented, but develop out of a kind of discourse, each poet tensed against another's poetics, in conversation."

Porter has assembled in the first issue a truly fascinating collection of work by a diverse group of poets, including Wendy Taylor Carlisle, Catherine Daly, Eileen Tabios, Marilyn Taylor and Bob Hickok.

But what's with the eyestraining type? I could become addicted to this site if my optometrist gives the nod. Or if I can find a better painkiller for those headaches.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

(No, it's not a new band) . . .Found this via Poetry Hut Blog: Pinsky on the Post. Love the pumpkin poem. Spent a night rather like that last night. Wrote a poem at 3:30 a.m. I used to know a midnight poet who not only dated his poems, but gave them times of night as well. But then he moved on to multimedia.

I stumbled on this amazing site last night. I would have told you about it sooner, but I was up late stumblingupon. I swear it's going to be a verb in the next edition of the online Merriam Webster, like "google."

is better than television. Which is why I lost sleep. I wouldn't stay up for Dave or late night movies or Charlie Rose, but I totally lost track of time through StumbleUpon. Try it out. See what happens. Let me know.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

On a poetry listserv I belong to, a debate rages today on the merit of Garrison Keillor's skewering of poets, poetry and especially women poets in his film, show and books. The man who once referred to Anne Sexton as a "hot babe" is taking a little heat of his own this morning in the interesting discussion I've been party to. Poetry Foundation's Ange Mlinko doesn't much like his satirical subjects either. Interesting way to get poetry into the news! I say if it makes even one person think about poetry, it's all to the good. Though I really don't like the way he dishes women poets like Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore. "Bunheaded librarian"? Pul-eeeze!

Monday, June 19, 2006

I read one every morning. Beats the so-called news, which rarely has anything surprising to say. This morning's was a poem by a Turkish poet in Atlanta Review, "Moonbath: a Lullaby" --

earth's softest sunbath,photons fresh in from a lunar landing,but weary of miles, ninety-two million outto the iron'rich seas and glassy meadowsof a four-billion-year-old crater-pocked rock

The poem got me to thinking about the salad days of the rocket biz, and about how sad I am that I can no longer get my father to reminisce about his work. He's that far gone in Alzheimer's that he doesn't remember writing the book he wrote on management of rocket projects.

But then I remembered that we're doing The Sixties all over again lately, with recreated "Freaky Folk Music", mini-skirts and moon shots. In August, Europe is taking aim at the golden eye in the sky. According to the BBC, they're ready to "light the blue paper" -- in my Dad's day, it was called "lighting the candle" -- and sending Smart 1 (yes, I know, really lame name) into space.

In 2018, NASA plans to plant another flag on the pocked orb. I suppose that's if North Korea or Iran doesn't get there before us. In the meantime, they have taken down the old Apollo tower because it was classified as hazardous waste. Nuff said.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Another stunning new zine that just launched is Mezzocammin, a journal devoted to new formal poetry by women, especially contemporary women poets. In the first issue, I found one of my favorite formalistas, the amazing, aptly named Kate Light. The editors also plan a women poets timeline, which they describe this way:

We will also, starting in our December issue, be featuring a women poets timeline, known as "The Timeline Project," which will eventually be the largest database devoted to women's poetry in the world.

Sounds exciting, if a bit vague. Actually, they're inviting comments about the idea, so I imagine they haven't nailed it down totally, except to announce that it will be the definitive world database on women's poetry. How about just starting with the world's largest database of women's poetry in form?

The idea appeals to me, especially as they say in their guidelines they encourage experimentation even within the confines of formal poetry. Kay Ryan is what I suppose they mean by formal and innovative -- and maybe some of the more fearless adaptations of the sonnet I've read in Kate Light's books.

Stay tuned. More new discoveries to come. Anyone have any interesting new magazines to suggest?

By the by, I just got six poems -- count 'em, SIX -- in another innovative new journal I hadn't yet had time to blog about: Fringe Magazine. "The noun that verbs your world." Gotta love a litmag with a slogan like that. They describe the journal as innovative, by/for those on the fringe -- sounds perfect. The issue my work will be in goes live on July 1. Read for yourself.

About Me

Rachel Abramson Dacus is the
author of the poetry collections Gods of Water and Air, Earth Lessons, Femme au Chapeau, and the spoken word CD
A God You Can Dance. Read her work at: http://racheldacus.net. A widely
published poet, dramatist, and writer, she's working on a novel with a love story involving the great Baroque sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini.